banner

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The newsletter may be read by clicking on the links below or by scrolling down the page to each article.

   

  • Archives nationales du Québec/ANQ Records By James Carten    
  • The Arsenaults, A Family with Deep Island Roots By Georges Arsenault    
  • Celebrating the Heritage of New England Acadians at Grand-Pré By Lucie LeBlanc Consentino    
  • Claire LeBlanc and Yves Dupuis By Stephen A. White    
  • Finding Your French-Canadian Ancestors Part II By Maurice A. LeBlanc    
  • From New Brunswick to New England The Story of an Acadian Family's Loss of Identity By William J. Cork    
  • Genetic Testing for Genealogists By Karen Theriot Reader    
  • Pierre Chartier French Shawnee Metis in Pennsylvania By Francoise Duhamel Wilcox    
  • Poems: 1755 & Beaubassin By James Perry    
  • Preparing for CMA 2004 - An Experience All of Its Own By Lucie LeBlanc Consentino    
  • Report On Paper Money Held By The Acadians By Roger Rozendal    
  • The Relationship Between the Ships Les Trois Soeurs and the Brigitte By Dennis Boudreau    
  • Treasured Moment at Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia By Brenda C. Trahan    
  • When did the Acadian Commandant Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil really die? Stanley LeBlanc

       

  • EDITOR'S CORNER:
  • Firsts in Acadia
  • Pennsylvania Gazette September 18, 1755 - The Deportation    
  • Recently Published Books *****Five Star Sites*****
       
  • To send The Ancestral Newsletter link to family and friends or to send your comments to the Editor




  •             S uddenly they arrived into the village,
                E very man and boy they wanted.
                V iciously rounded up and imprisoned in the church,
                E ncircled by soldiers, armed and angry.
                N o one allowed to come or to go,
                T hey were guarded all day and all night.
                E nemies for life they became,
                E ach side watching the other,
                N either wanting a fight.

                F orced from our homes, burnt before our eyes;
                I mperialism reigning supreme.
                F amilies torn apart, sons and daughters lost forever,
                T ransported in ships to far away lands,
                Y oung and old together.

                F ar flung across the world.
                I ll gotten property, herds and flocks.
                V ie Acadie Vie!
                E den was not forever lost.

          Green grows the grass on the Beaubassin's gentle slopes,
          The distant cows, heavy with milk, mooing.
          For fisherman, farmer, baker, blacksmith and miller,
          Beaubasin's life was quiet, kind and gentle.
          A ship entering the harbour, broke the stillness of the day.
          St. George's emblem on mast top flying,
          Bodes ill for all, for only trouble this lot could bring us.
          Fly Acadie fly, the darkness is coming!

          The cannon roars, again and again,
          The countryside quiet viciously broken.
          Redcoats slowly advancing,
          Killing intent on their faces.
          Flames rising against the suns setting,
          Le Loutre burning it all.
          Years of effort, generation passed forward,
          Destroyed black in a handful of minutes.

          We flee into the night, half naked
          Carrying only what we can handle.
          Amidst cannon, lost children, fire, and chaos,
          Will Beausejour welcome us all?
          The English victors now celebrate.
          Our lands and herds are now George's forever!
          Under the cross of St. Andrew, will they prosper?

          Acadie is now homeless!
          Far flung across the world's lands.
          Someday we will be back together,
          Brother and sister restored to the family.
          The blood in our veins, will match the stains
          On the ground, where lives were taken.

          Imprisonment, deportation or death,
          For many there is not a difference.
          Children left orphans, parents gone forever.
          Destitute, desperate, hungry and cold,
          The young cry day and night for succor.

          Yellowed starred blue, white and red,
          Flags fly at the border now welcome Acadie
          Come home, to celebrate four hundred
          Your old lands now cry out in gladness.

          The spilt blood on the ground is now long gone
          As you walk on the gentle grass slopes
          The cows distant mooing is heard, once again

          The future is bright with promise, Acadie rises again!
          God bless you, dear Acadie forever;

          Amen and Amen and Amen






    Finding Your French-Canadian Ancestors
    Part 1 – The Tools

    By Maurice A. LeBlanc

  • THE REGISTRAR OF CIVIL STATUS

    In my younger days, when one wished a copy of one’s birth or marriage certificate or an ancestor’s burial certificate, one only had to request it from the parish. Every parish had the authority to issue these certificates. A duplicate copy of the certificate had also been sent to the district courthouse, and a certified copy could also be obtained from this source.

    With the reform of Quebec’s Civil Code, the law was changed and since January 1, 1994, parishes and courthouses are no longer authorized to issue certified copies of their registers, this authority having been reserved for the office of the Registrar of Civil Status. Today this office verifies the request against the courthouse copy, and issues the certificate. Admittedly, this assures greater security, particularly in the case of the issue of passports and driver’s licenses, where great abuse existed previously.

    To request a copy of a certificate today, one should consult the site of the Registrar of Civil Status at Registrar of Civil Status

  • PRDH

    PRDH is an acronym for “Programme de Recherche en Démographie Historique”, a demographic research program undertaken by the University of Montreal a few years ago. Parish records were compiled for the years from 1621 thru 1799 for all parishes in Quebec. Initially, the results were published in a large number of volumes. Since then, a CD is available, as is a pay-for-use web site. The web site has a freebie portion to it, so one can run a query to see if a particular record exists. Then a paid-up subscriber can login and rerun the query to extract the details for just the record needed. The accounting method has recently been changed so it is no longer necessary to run the free query first. You will only be charged for the display of a record, a family file or a couple file.

    Just out since my last visit, the web site now contains some burial records for the period from 1800 thru 1850.

    This tool will be the subject of a more detailed description in a later issue. If you wish, you can consult the site at PRDH

  • 1901 CENSUS TRANSCRIPTION

    For some time now, images of the 1901 Canadian census have been available online at the Canadian Archives web site. Use of these images is not what I would call user-friendly. If you’re looking for a particular family you need to know where they were living. Even then, it was not easy to find the right image to consult. We now have a database containing a transcription of this census for all of Canada. Nationally, transcription is 98.87% complete, with proofreading at 16.82%. For the Province of Quebec, transcription is 95.8% complete.

    The web site has a surname index, and the ability to consult the original census image. The index makes it easy to locate a particular family, and there is a facility to suggest surname corrections if you feel the transcription is wrong or the enumerator made an error. These corrections are themselves indexed. Consulting the image will allow you to view immigration information, occupation, an inventory of farm animals, and schooling. A detailed description of this tool will be the subject of a future issue. If you wish, you can consult the site at Automated Genealogy Census Index

  • CANADIAN GENEALOGY CENTER

    In addition to the census mentioned above, the National Library and Archives of Canada have a number of other databases online. Among those I have found most useful are the databases of Western Land Grants (1870-1930), Soldiers of the First World War (1914-1918), and Post Offices and Postmasters where I have found my grandfathers, uncles and cousins. The site can be reached at Canadian Genealogy Center

  • DICTIONNAIRE TANGUAY ONLINE

    The "Bibliothèque nationale du Québec" has placed online a digitized version of the Dictionnaire généalogique des familles Canadiennes published by father Cyprien Tanguay. Research of Acadian ancestors will invariably lead to the marriage of these Acadian descendants with Quebec residents. The ancestors of these residents can often be traced back to the founding of the colony. Although a number of errors and omissions have been identified, this work is generally quite accurate. It is unfortunate that the “Complément” published by J. A. Leboeuf has not also been digitized. Although the site is being constantly updated, you should be able to reach it at this address Bibliothèque Nationale de Québec

    In addition to his more well-known Dictionnaire, Tanguay has also published a general index of Canadian clergy which has also been digitized. It is also available at the same site. Use of this site will be the subject of a more detailed review in a forthcoming issue.




    The Arsenaults, A Family with Deep Island Roots

    By Georges Arsenault

    The Evangeline Region of Prince Edward Island could be called the Arsenault capital of the world. More than half of its population carries the Arsenault family name and most of the other residents possess a good dose of Arsenault blood. It is not uncommon to find an Arsenault married to an Arsenault while some individuals can boast that their four grandparents carry the name!

    On the provincial level, the Arsenaults yield only to the MacDonalds and the Gallants in numbers. About half of the Island’s Arsenaults live in the eastern part of Prince County in the area extending from Summerside to the Evangeline Region. In fact, the Arsenaults have been associated with that part of the Island from the early part of the 18th century. They were the founders of the first European settlement in Prince County when, in 1728, Pierre Arsenault Jr. and his married son Charles settled on the western shore of Malpeque Bay in the vicinity of today’s Port Hill. They called their community Malpeque. A Lambert family also came to Malpeque that year but stayed but briefly. By the 1734 census, the nascent community was made up of four families, that of Pierre Jr. and of his three married children.

    These Arsenaults had not been born in France but in Acadie, today’s Nova Scotia. It was Pierre’s father, who was also named Pierre, who came to Acadie from France as a young man in the early 1670s. He settled in Port-Royal (now Annapolis Royal) where he married Marguerite Dugas and had two sons. After his wife’s premature death, Pierre married Marie Guérin and they had six sons and one daughter.

    In 1686, Pierre Arsenault Sr. moved with his family from Port Royal to Beaubassin (near Amherst, N.S.). It is from there that his son, Pierre Jr., came to Malpeque with his family. Later three of Pierre Jr.’s brothers also moved to the Island : Claude (also known as Ambroise), Abraham (called “le Petit”) and Jacques. By 1752, the settlement of Malpeque had grown to 32 families and 40% of these carried the Arsenault name. The Arsenault “clan” evidently dominated the community as many of the other Malpeque families were intermarried with them.

    Fortunately, the Malpeque settlers, including the Arsenaults, escaped deportation from the Island after its conquest by the British in 1758. Most managed to flee to the mainland before the British ships arrived to deport them. But many of the Arsenaults came back to the Island in the early 1760s, recruited as fishermen by British merchants. However they didn’t return to the Port Hill area. They first settled on the eastern shore of Malpeque Bay in the vicinity of today’s Malpeque village. Later they were to relocate to the head of the bay as tenants, settling between Rosehill in Lot 16 and Lower New Annan in Lot 19. By 1798, there were 51 families enumerated in that Acadian community, 30% of which carried the name Arsenault.

    Shortly after the 1798 census, the Acadian tenants began leaving their Malpeque Bay settlement for other areas in Prince County because of problems they encountered with their British landlords. Thus the Arsenault’s started migrating to Tignish in 1799, to Cascumpec in 1801 and to Egmont Bay and Mont-Carmel in 1812. Among the 61 Egmont Bay and Mont-Carmel settlers to receive land grants in Lot 15 in 1828, 32 of them were Arsenaults! It is not surprising, therefore, that four communities of that area, called the Evangeline Region, are named after Arsenaults : Abram-Village, Maximeville, Urbainville, and Saint-Hubert.

    A number of prominent Island Acadians hail from this impressive family. The Island’s first Acadian senator was Joseph-Octave Arsenault from Abram-Village. In 1917, his son, Aubin-Edmond Arsenault, became the Premier of Prince Edward Island, the first Acadian to become Premier of a Canadian province. And one of Canada’s best-known Acadian artists is Angèle Arsenault, a native of Abram’s Village, whose career as singer, songwriter, and performer has spanned more than 30 years.

    Unravelling the Arsenault family tree through the hundreds of Joseph and Marie Arsenaults can be a very challenging task. A visit to the Acadian Study Centre, located at the Acadian Museum in Miscouche, is highly recommended to anyone researching his Arsenault genealogy. You might even find, in this well-documented centre, situated in the heartland of Arsenault country, a picture of one of your ancestors.

    Françoise Gallant, née Arsenault. Born circa 1805 in Platte River, on Malpeque Bay, she moved to Mont Carmel in 1812 with her parents, Paul Arsenault and Claire Brun. This Mont Carmel pioneer, who died in 1907, is the oldest Island Arsenault for whom a portrait has been found. She is seen here wearing the traditional Acadian dress. (Acadian Museum Collection)

    [Ed note: At the time this article was written, Georges Arsenault was unaware that Françoise-Arsenault-Gallant was a great great great grandmother of James Perry, another author of the newsletter.]


    Claire LeBlanc and Yves Dupuis


    By Stephen A. White

    The names of her parents are not indicated in Claire LeBlanc's marriage record. You may know, however, that Thaddée LeBlanc was a witness at her marriage. This fact is not immediately helpful, as there were a great many Thaddée LeBlancs at Memramcook, but it will serve eventually, as you shall see.

    Claire and Yves can be fairly readily found in the transcriptions of the 1861 and 1871 censuses, even though Yves is called "Joseph" in the first of these and "Elijah" in the second. What matters of course is the fact that these censuses show that Claire was twenty-nine in 1861 and thirty-nine in 1871, so we know that she was born about 1832.

    Unfortunately, there is no baptismal record to be found anywhere for a Claire LeBlanc who was born anywhere near the year 1832. I looked for one in the indexes for Memramcook, St-Anselme, Barachois, Cap-Pelé, Cocagne, Grande-Digue, and Bouctouche, but there is no indication of such a baptism in any of them.

    I then proceeded to look up the baptisms of Claire's own children, hoping to find some clue regarding her parents' identities through the godparents she chose. Thaddée LeBlanc reappears here as the godfather of one of her eldest children, and there were also a Rosalie LeBlanc and a Dominique LeBlanc among the sponsors of some others. Unfortunately, Rosalie and Dominique were both quite common given names among the LeBlancs at Memramcook around this time, so no short-cut to Claire's parents presented itself in this direction.

    I then went to the 1851 census. When a visitor searching for this information had come to CEA I had glanced quickly through our re-arrangement of the Acadian families in this census who lived in Westmorland County, but I did not find any unmarried Claire LeBlanc in it at all, although one would certainly expect her to be there, aged around nineteen. I determined to go through all the LeBlanc entries again. Luckily, I did not have to look at all the entries to find what I was after. Claire was indeed nineteen in 1851. And she was a daughter of Marcel LeBlanc and Victoire Landry. But in the transcription of the census she is shown as "Elair," and as a male. In working with the transcription we had taken this to be a boy named Hilaire, although no corresponding baptism, nor any other record, could be found to confirm that Hilaire was indeed this child's name. The error in gender may at first glance seem rather troubling, but it is by no means the first error of this sort that I have seen in the transcription of this census. The purely transcriptional aspect of the error is meanwhile quite easy to understand; it occurred by simply replacing the initial "C" with an "E."

    The next older child in Marcel LeBlanc's family was a girl named Rosalie, and the next before her was a boy named Thaddée. These must have been the witness at Claire's wedding and the godparents of two of her children. There was no Dominique in Marcel's family, however. In exploring a little further I concluded that the Dominique LeBlanc who served as godfather of another of Claire's sons was perhaps the one who had married one of Yves Dupuis's aunts.

    Another proof that this is the correct LeBlanc family comes through the dispensation Claire and Yves obtained in order to get married. They were cousins in the third degree. This can be explained by the fact that Victoire Landry's father, Joseph-Laurent Landry, was a brother of Yves Dupuis's paternal grandmother, Anne Landry. They were also related in at least a couple of other, remoter ways, but these remoter relationships were not addressed in their marriage record.

    Marcel LeBlanc appears in LeBlanc family no. 33 in my "Trente-sept familles," and Victoire Landry is in Landry family no. 7 in the same compilation.


    When did the Acadian Commandant Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil really die?

    By Stanley LeBlanc

    Several references,including Quest for the Promised Land by Carl Brasseaux, state that Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil, the Commandant of the Acadians at Attakapas, died September 4, 1765. This was apparently based upon the following two SWLR [Southwest Louisiana Records] entries:

    BROUSSARD, Joseph died 4 September 1765; buried 5 September 1765; funeral recorded: 7 September 1765. Fr. Jean FRANCOIS (SM Ch.: v.1, p.12)

    BROUSSARD, Joseph died 4 September 1765; buried 5 September 1765 "au dernier camp enbas" [at the last camp or burial place on the lower section]; funeral recorded: 7 September 1765 Fr. Jean FRANCOIS, cure (pastor) of the new Acadia.
    (SM Ch.: Slave Register - Funerals: v.1, #20)

    The two references above do not refer to the Joseph Broussard who died 4 September 1765 "dit Beausoleil" nor as the Capitain or Commandant of the Acadians. The following two SWLR entries for a burial of 20 October 1765 however, specifically refer to the death of Joseph dit Beausoliel as the Capitain Commandant des Acadiens:

    BROUSSARD, Joseph dit Beausoleil - "Capitain Commandant des Acadiens des Atakapas" [Commanding or leading captain (Leader) of the Acadians of Atakapas]. buried 20 October 1765 at the Camp [place or location] named Beausoleil; recorded 25 November 1765. Fr. Jean FRANCOIS (SM Ch.: v.1, p.78)

    BROUSSARD, Joseph dit Beausoleil - "Capitaine Commandant des Acadiens aux Atakapas" buried 20 October 1765 at place called Beausoleil, Record entered: 25 Nov. 1765. Fr. Jean FRANCOIS, Cappucin. (SM Ch.: Folio B-1, Funeral)

    My research indicates that the Joseph Broussard who died 4 September 1765 was most likely Jean [-Joseph], the grandson of Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil and Agnes Thibodeaux and the son of Victor-Gregoire Broussard and Elisabeth LeBlanc [Rene LeBlanc & Anne Theriot]. Jean [-Joseph] was born 15 September 1753 as recorded in the Acadian Church Records. Acadian Church Records, 1679-1757 by Winston Deville Parish Churches of Ste. Famillie De Pabok, of the Baie-des-Chaleurs, of the Grande Rivière and other places inhabited in Gaspésie from Eshedoik to Kamounaska

    Page 18

    September 30, 1753 Jean Brussart - born September 15, 1753, son of Victor Brussart and Izabelle Leblanc. Sponsors: Raphael Brussart and Rosalie Le Blanc

    [Note: Raphael and his two children - Joseph and Francoise - died before 1765. His widow, Rose LeBlanc, sister of Elisabeth became the first Acadian nun in Louisiana . Victor Broussard was one of the Acadians who signed the Agreement with Dauterive in 1765. His wife, Elisabeth LeBlanc died 10/29/1765 in Attakapas. Their daughter Agnes apparently died before they arrived in Louisiana because there is no mention of her in the records.] In the 25 April 1766 census of Bayou Queque de Tortue (Attakapas) is listed a Victor Broussard with no family (Voorhies "Some Eighteenth Century Louisianians" p. 124). All the other Joseph Broussards in Attakapas at the time were alive after 1765. It seems logical to conclude therefore, that the Joseph Broussard, who died on 4 September 1765 was Jean [-Joseph], the son of Victor-Gregoire and Elisabeth LeBlanc and grandson of Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil.


    Genetic Testing for Genealogists

    By Karen Theriot Reader

    An exciting new tool has become available for family historians--using DNA analysis. Who can submit DNA for testing? And why should you want to? Currently, there are two basic kinds of commercial DNA tests used to further your traditional paper genealogy. The first is only for men, since it analyzes a small part of the Y chromosome, unique to males. This test gives a series of numbers on a varying number of "marker" genes, providing a unique benchmark to identify a particular surname line. Several companies offer to do this "surname" male Y chromosome test, the largest one to date being Family Tree DNA . They have DNA analysis currently on record for over 9,000 surnames.

    Women who want to start or join such a surname project must find a male relative (brother, uncle, cousin) who descends from the same target male in their surname line (a grandfather, great-grandfather, etc.). Since the DNA is passed virtually unchanged from father to son down through the ages, a test of a few other descendants in that surname line should usually provide a series of numbers that would define that male line. The more rare surnames show a distinct set of numbers, but there are projects underway for differentiating separate descendance in common surnames as well. I hope to do this for my mother's LANE surname, by testing one of her male second cousins. The hope is to match up with another LANE that has "paper" proof of origins farther back than we do.

    I had my brother join a Terriot Surname DNA Project, and so far the growing number of men tested have all matched. They share various spellings of the name (THERIOT, THERIAULT, THARIO), confirming their pedigrees "on paper" from the same couple who came to Acadia from France in 1636. There may even be Frenchmen today who have descended from this same line before the emigration who will prove to be a match.

    The second main type of DNA test done for genealogists is for the female line only. Women pass on their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to all their children, but only their daughters can then pass it on again. It represents an unbroken chain of unique DNA back to the very beginnings of human life. Your mother to her mother to her mother and on back. Mutations are so slow that there have been shown to be only seven of these mitochondrial "haplogroups" in ancient Europe. The popular book called The Seven Daughters of Eve traces this phenomenon. One of the results of a broadening of the databases of mitochondrial DNA is that scientists can differentiate the continent of origin, and so distinguish, for example, native American heritage from that of Europe or Asia.

    More recent mutations can also differentiate unique female ancestry. Exact matches can mean that you share a common ancestor with another submitter. When I sent my mtDNA for testing the results showed a perfect match with three others. We do not yet know how far back in our genealogies this common ancestor is, nor who she was. However, at least one of these submitters shares a link to the same 1810 census of South Carolina, where her last-known female-line relative lived next door to the family of my last-known female-line. We are now looking for connections where we had not even suspected any.

    The test is painless, a simple swab inside the cheeks. And the cost is far less than one would spend on a trip to the Salt Lake City genealogical Family History Library, or in a full subscription to an online genealogy service. Give it a try. For more information go to DNA project or for an expanded explanation go to Terriau.org


    Archives nationales du Québec aka ANQ Records -

    By Jim Carten

    These baptismal acts were taken from the micro-films in the A.N.Q. (Archives Nationales du Québec) at Laval University in the Casault Pavillion.

    The Latter Day Saints have done a fantastic job of copying the parish and civil registers in Québec and other areas such as well as a few towns in Acadia. There must be thousands of tapes in the Archives and are there for public viewing and also photocopying. You will find baptismal, marriage and burial acts and these are the best primary sources that you will find. The Archives are open daily six days a week from 10:30 a.m. until 9:45 p.m. on Monday through Wednesday, and from 10:30 a.m. until 4:00 or 4:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays. Saturdays they open at 8:30 a.m.

    What is so wonderful about these films is not only their reliability but also you will find the names of the parents, the father's trade or profession oft times, the godparents in the baptisms, the witnesses in the marriages and the burials. This means that if the child was baptized in St-Charles-les-Mines that the godparents were from there, as the distance for them to travel from someplace else would be too great to attend a baptism of a child born that day or the day before. Here is an indiction of who the godparents were and where they resided at that date in time. You will find in the marriages whether the couple receiving the sacrament were of age or not, and in quite a few cases, if the groom might have been from another village or town it would be noted. It will also note the parents and if they are deceased it will be mentioned. Then of course there are the witnesses and finally the signatures of those who could sign, giving us an idea on who was literate and who was not.

    For the godparents, in Acadia as well as in Québec, there seemed to be a tendency to have an influential person as a godfather. We can see that especially around forts, and larger cities. such as Trois-Rivières where you might run across the name of Pierre Boucher as a godfather. We find Charles de Latour in Acadie at St-Charles-les-Mines. I do not know why this was popular but I can only guess that it would either give the family bragging rights or it would be a sort of deal which just might bring prosperity to the child, as the parents were dirt poor and anything they could grasp onto to hope for the better, they did.

    I would encourage you to stop by the A.N.Q. at Laval. An added attraction is that the SGQ is now located next door to the Archives. On the next floor up, there are the Archives where you may view and procure copies of old photographs of various towns, the construction of the Québec Bridge etc.

  • François Hébert
  • François Hébert, born the 02-04-1710 legitimate son of Jacques Hébert and of Marguerite Landry was baptized the same day in the parish church of St-Charles-les-Mines by me, undersigned, the godfather was François Landry and the godmother Marguerite Dugat. the godfather signed with me the godmother Marguerite Dugat declared not being able to sign.

  • Anne-Marie Melanson
  • Anne-Marie Melanso born durnig the evening of the 2-01-1710 legitimate daughter of Philippe Melanson and of Marie Dugat was baptized the same day in the paris hchurch of St-Charles-les-Mines by me, undersigned, the godfather was Paul Melanson the godmother was Marguerite Hébert, the godfather signed with me, the godmother declared not knowing how to sign.

    Bonaventure Masson
    Réc. miss.

  • Paul Melanson
  • Anne LeBlanc
  • Anne LeBlanc, born the 30-01-1710 legitimate daughter of Charles LeBlanc and of Marie Gotrot was baptized in th e parish church of St-Charles-les-mines by me, undersigned, thegodfather was René Richard, the godmother Marie Terriot qho declared not knowing how to sign.

    Bonaventure Masson
    Réc. miss.

  • Marie LeBlanc
  • Marie LeBlanc, born the 23-01-1710 legitimate daughter of François LeBlanc and of Jeanne Hébert was baptized the same day in the paris hchurch of St-Charles-les-Mines by me, undersigned, the godfather was Pierre LeBlanc and the godmother Magdelaine Hébert, the godfather signed with me the godmotherdeclared not being able to sign.

    Bonaventure Masson
    Réc. miss.
    Pierre LeBlanc

  • Charles Richard
  • Charles Richard, born the 11-04-1710, legitimate son of Pierre Richard and of Marguerite Landry was baptized the same day in the church of St-Charles-les-Mines by me, undersigned, the godfather was Jean Landry the godmother Marguerite Richard. The godfather signed with me and the godmother has declared not knowing how to sign......

    Pre. bonaventure Masson
    Récollet miss.

  • Jean Landry
  • Ref: Micro-film 4MO1-0661 A.N.Q.

  • Paul Douäron
  • Paul Douäron born the 11-04-1710 legitimate son of Noël Douäron and of Marie Robert received the ceremonies of baptism the 19-04-1710 in the church of St-Charles-les-Mines by me, undersigned, the godfather was Louis Douäron and thegodmother Cécile Landry qho declared not knowing how to sign.

    Bonaventure Masson
    Réc. Miss.

  • Brigitte LeBlanc
  • Brigitte LeBlanc born the 23-01-1710 legitimate daughter of Antoine LeBlanc and of Anne Landry has received the ceremonies of baptism the 30-05-1710 in the parish church of St-Charles-les-Mines by me, undersigned, the godfather was Jean LeBlanc, son of Antoine LeBlanc the godmother Françoise Landry, the godfather signed with me, th godmother declared not knowing how to sign.

    Bonaventure Masson
    Réc. miss.

  • Jean LeBlanc

  • From New Brunswick to New England
    The Story of an Acadian Family's Loss of Identity

    By William J. Cork

    About 1883 Simon and Obéline LeBlanc, my great-great-grandparents, joined a flood of emigrants from French Canada to New England, attracted by the prospects of employment in the growing industrial mill towns. Unlike most of their countrymen, they didn't go to a city with a heavy French presence, but to Ansonia, Connecticut, a town of brass and copper mills, whose immigrant population was largely Irish, Polish, Russian, Austrian, and Hungarian with a smattering of Scandinavians, Germans, and Swiss. They were alone, and they and their family rapidly assimilated, as is shown by the fact that in the earliest mention of their names in a public record in Connecticut they are Simon and Evelena White.

    They would have found themselves caught between two hostile attitudes. An 1869 article in Le Moniteur acadien denounced emigrants as "slaves" and "mercenaries." They were seen as rejecting traditional values and their own culture at a time when Acadians in the Maritimes were trying to restore a sense of national identity.1 New Englanders who sought to preserve their Protestant and Puritan heritage, on the other hand, spoke of French Canadians in similar mercenary terms. Carroll D. Wright described them as "the Chinese of the Eastern States" in the 12th Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor (1881):

    They care nothing for our institutions, civil, political, or educational. They do not come to make a home among us, to dwell with us as citizens, and so become a part of it; but their purpose is merely to sojourn a few years as aliens, touching us only at a single point, that of work, and, when they have gathered out of us what will satisfy their ends, to get them away to whence they came, and bestow it there. They are a horde of industrial invaders, not a stream of stable settlers.2

    A "horde" indeed - from 1860 to 1920 nearly a million French Canadians made the journey south.3

    I have no written artifacts from Simon and Obéline LeBlanc and no family oral histories which tell their particular story. The best I can do is follow them on a journey which is documented by marriage and baptismal registers, city directories, and census data. I can place these facts against descriptions of towns and current events by contemporaries. I can thus try to begin to tell a story that is no doubt very similar to stories of other ancestors of New Englanders of today who have no sense of being Acadian, so successful were our ancestors at assimilating.

    Simon à Laurent à Jean dit Bis à Firmin à Joseph-André à Claude à André à Daniel LeBlanc of St-Anselme, New Brunswick (founded by his great-grandfather, Firmin) was married on October 4, 1859, to Obéline Gautreau, whose family had moved to Memramcook from Cap-Pelé some years before. Her parents, Hilaire Gautrot and Domithilde LeBlanc, were, says Stephen White, "a rather unusual Acadian couple for that time in that they moved frequently." Hilaire's path took him from his birthplace, Tracadie, NB, to Chéticamp, the Magdalen Islands, and Cap-Pelé before settling in Memramcook.4

    Stephen White found records of five children of Simon and Obéline in the parish register of St-Anselme; the 1881 Canadian Census for Hillsborough, NB, lists ten children, and gives Simon's occupation as mason. I've found evidence for two other children, making a total of twelve children born to this couple between 1860 and 1884; the last, Stella, was the only one born in Connecticut.5

    I don't know exactly when Simon and Obéline moved to Connecticut, but the next mention I find of them after the 1881 Canadian Census is the 1883 Ansonia City Directory, which has them living on Jewett. By 1884 they've moved to Kankwood Hill (today known as Platt Street), above Elm Street. This was "the edge of town" in 1884, according to Robert Novak of the Derby Historical Society; further up Kankwood Hill one found "little more than farms - and it largely stayed that way until after the 1955 Flood." They "were just past the edge of the urban sprawl caused by the nearby mill towns, but within comfortable walking or trolley distance that they could access jobs and services within them."6

    The LeBlancs - or Whites, as we must now call them - were the only Acadian family in the immediate neighborhood, as far as I can tell. Though Ansonia was a multiethnic town of immigrants, they settled among "old Yankees," including a large interconnected Smith family which had lived in the area since Colonial days. The second oldest White daughter, Domithilde/Matilda, was 20 in 1883, and she soon became acquainted with a neighborhood boy a couple years her junior, Frederick William Smith. He was the youngest of seven children, and worked as a brass molder at one of the mills nearby. They had a child, apparently out of wedlock, which died. They were married on January 5, 1887, at the Methodist Church by Rev. Samuel M. Hammond, and on August 1 Matilda gave birth to Jennie May Smith. By this time Simon had died; I haven't found the precise date or the cause of death. He would have been about fifty-four years old; Obéline, now Evelena, was a widow at 46, with several children still at home.

    Evelena lived next door to Frederick and Matilda, who in the following years had two additional daughters, Mabel Ida, born November 13, 1889, and Emma Evelina, born May 6, 1892.

    Evelena and the rest of the family remained Catholic, and were members of Assumption Church. Matilda appears to have fallen away from the practice of any religion for a period, but on April 2, 1893, all three of her daughters were baptized at Christ Episcopal Church with Mason and Fannie Barnes (Frederick's sister) as sponsors. Fannie seems to have been the only religious person in her immediate family; as a child she went to Sunday School at Christ Episcopal Church with her cousin and neighbor, but she was not baptized and confirmed until 1885, when she was married and in her mid-twenties; her five year old daughter, Bessie, was baptized a month later.

    In the years to come it is difficult to keep track of Evelena's other children. The older sons appear and disappear in the city directory and census records, sometimes boarding with her, usually working at Ansonia Brass. In 1894 Evelena is boarding with Frederick and Matilda Smith at 10 Kankwood Hill. On October 29, 1894, Matilda's brother Noah White became a citizen of the US. The naturalization record says he was age 22, living at Kankwood Hill. The form affirms that he arrived in the US from Canada before the age of 18, and had lived in the US since his arrival, with the intent of becoming a citizen. In 1895 Mary White married George Gordon Grower at Assumption Catholic Church; he was a chemist from Brooklyn, the son of immigrants from Scotland and Ireland.

    On December 27, 1895, Frederick and Matilda Smith had their fourth and final child, a boy, named Frederick William Smith after his father - this was my grandfather. He was baptized nearly a year later, on December 17, 1896, at Christ Episcopal Church by Rev. Charles E. Woodcock, a future Episcopal Bishop of Kentucky. As with his sisters, his sponsors were his aunt and uncle, Mason and Fannie Barnes.

    Tragedy struck the family on November 11, 1898, when Matilda White Smith died of "phthisis" (tuberculosis) at the age of 35, after a year long illness; she was buried in Elm Street Cemetery, with Rev. Charles Woodcock officiating. My grandfather was three years old. Frederick seems to have tried to keep the family together for a while, but within two years the family had split up. The 1900 Census shows Frederick (age 35) and daughter Emma (9) boarding with his brother, George W. at 55 Spring Street. Daughter Jennie (13) has gone to live with her mother's sisters Florence and Ethel White. Mabel (11) is boarding with the family of Jackson Sears, a farmer. William (5) is boarding with the family of Jacob and Sarah Freeman.

    Family history tells us some things that I can't find documentation for. My grandfather told my mother that he and his sisters had been sent to the Mt. Carmel Children's home. His nephew Vince Szymanski said that various people subsequently took the girls in, and that they soon married. My grandfather, it is said, only got out of the orphanage when he joined the army. None are in the orphanage at the time of the 1900 census, though.

    Matilda's sister, Ethel White, also died of phthisis after a long illness on May 20, 1905; she was living with her sister Mary Grower at the time, and was buried at Mt. St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery, Derby. Evelena and Stella continued to board with the Growers in the years to come. Evelena died September 17, 1911, and was buried from Assumption parish in Mt. St. Peter's cemetery.

    My grandfather, Frederick William Smith, was cut off completely from his Acadian and Catholic family members. He appears to be an "inmate" of the Connecticut School for Boys in Meriden in 1910. He joined the Army in World War I, fought in France, continued to serve in the Army at Fort Monroe, Virginia, into the early 20s. He married in 1925, had a son, and divorced soon after. In 1930 he was a gardener in Woodbridge, Connecticut, working on an estate not far from the home of the Crowther family; he married Gladys Crowther in 1937 - my grandmother. He did reconnect with at least one of his sisters and was good friends with his nephew Vince Szymanski; my mother recalls occasional contacts with two of his mother’s sisters, Agnes White Colwell and Florence White Malvey (whose antique cherry candlestand has an honored place in my living room). My great-grandfather, Frederick William Smith, resurfaces in the 1920 Census living in New Haven. He remarried, to Mary Burdekin, who had a grown son, William. Vince Szymanski recalled in later years that Bill Burdekin had red hair; Mary's great-granddaughter says her family remembers this, too, and also remembers Mary Burdekin as "quite a problem" with a "terrible disposition." She died about 1927 or 1928. Around this time I find record of the elder Frederick as a resident of Springside Home, New Haven's "poor house." He died about 1932. My grandmother recalled meeting him at least once, an old man with a white beard.

    I never knew my grandfather, because he died in 1961, some months before I was born. My mother knew her grandmother was "French Canadian," but it was only after we heard from Stephen White in 1991 that we began to have a sense of Acadian identity.

    My family's story is probably not much different from that of many New England Acadian families. It is a story of alienation -alienation from New Brunswick, from the French language, from Acadian culture and identity - even from family ties and religious faith. This alienation led to the fragmentation of my grandfather's family upon his mother's untimely death; for some reason he and his siblings were not taken in by family members, were scattered, and the ties were permanently severed. In either New Brunswick or Louisiana this would have been less likely to happen; in those places, a society of interconnected families with a long history together, bound by blood and faith and common work, would have provided a more cohesive environment in which cultural identity and family ties could have survived the sort of tragedies that broke my family. In New England, the struggle for survival meant seeking other supports, and with that came full assimilation as English-speaking New England Protestants with no sense of Acadian identity.

    The story of Acadians in New England is different from the stories told in the Maritimes or in Louisiana. It is a story of individuals and families trying to survive in a hostile world as strangers. People back home regarded them as traitors; their new neighbors often saw them as invaders. They came to view themselves in many cases simply as Americans - sometimes as Franco-Americans. The Acadian identity which we have recovered is something they never had. Their world, 19th century New England, is the world I've studied most as an historian. It's a world of innovation and industrialization, of immigration and xenophobia, of evangelizing zeal and anti-Catholic bigotry. This is the period, and these are the stories, that I want to understand better, and which I will be looking at in the articles I contribute for future issues of this newsletter.

    1Léon Thériault, "Acadia from 1763 to 1990: An Historical Synthesis." In Jean Daigle, ed., Acadia of the Maritimes (Moncton, NB: Université de Moncton, Chaire d'études acadiennes, 1995), pp. 64-65.

    2Cited by Gerard J. Brault, The French-Canadian Heritage in New England (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1986), p. 68.

    3Mark Alan Healey, "'The Eldorado to the South': French-Canadians in the U.S."

    4Stephen A. White to Wilifred A. Cork, October 23, 1991 L'Acadie Toujours.

    5William J. Cork, "Chasing Shadows" L'Acadie Toujours. See this page for documentation of the family information related in this article.

    6Robert Novak to William J. Cork, July 19, 2004.


    The Relationship Between the Ships
    Les Trois Soeurs and the Brigitte

    By Dennis Boudreau

    Note: The following short article was written as a response to the question by Karen Theriot Reader on the Acadian-Cajun List serve regarding the identities of certain people on the ship the Brigitte which left St-Pierre and Miquelon for Louisiana. Her message follows.

    "I'm confused by the list of 1788 arrivals listed in Brasseaux' book The Founding of New Acadia. On p. 105 the text does say "nineteen Acadians boarded the schooner Brigitte and set sail for Louisiana from St. Pierre Island (St. Pierre and Miquelon)." He also says that 17 of the passengers were related to Joseph GRAVOIS, the Captain.

    However, his list of passengers in Appendix B on p. 208 is identical to the one Stanley LeBlanc cites on his webpage. Both lists only contain 18 names. [Ed note: only the names are on Stanley's site not the dates.]

    1) Anne Marguerite BABIN [born 1770]
    2) Charles BABIN [Jean Charles born 1776]
    3) Francois Laurent BABIN [born 1766]
    4) Marie LeBLANC BABIN [mother of the other BABINs, widow of Joseph BABIN]
    5) Mathurin BABIN [born 1773]
    6) Pierre Moise BABIN [born 1768]
    7) Victoire BABIN [should this be Victor? daughter Victoire apparently stayed in Canada]
    8) Jean-Baptiste BOUDRAU [which one is this?]
    9) Magdelene BOURG [wife of Joseph GRAVOIS]
    10) Jean Frederic GRAVOIS [baptized Joseph Frederic, born 1772]
    11) Jean Hubert GRAVOIS [bt. 1781]
    12) Joseph GRAVOIS [the Captain, married to Madeleine BOURG and father of the others]
    13) Magdelaine Blanche GRAVOIS [bt. 1788]
    14) Marguerite Angelique GRAVOIS [born 1764]
    15) Marie Felicite GRAVOIS [born 1766]
    16) Marie Susanne GRAVOIS [bt. 1784]
    17) Marie Thersille GRAVOIS [bt. 1779]
    18) Victoire GRAVOIS [born 1775]

    I tentatively identify some of these people as:

    #4) Marie/Marine LE BLANC was daughter of Jean (dit Des Sapins) LE BLANC (White, DGFA, p. 989) & Anne LANDRY (p. 928). Her deceased husband Joseph BABIN was son of Claude BABIN (p. 59) & Marie Marguerite DUPUIS (p. 598). I believe the missing person on the list should be their oldest surviving son Bonaventure BABIN, then age about 28, who married less than one month after this group's arrival in Louisiana, to Felicite LANDRY, a widow 9 years older who had eight surviving children.

    #9) Madeleine BOURG was daughter of Michel BOURG (p. 235) & Jeanne (Anne) HEBERT (p. 834).

    #12) Joseph GRAVOIS was the son of Joseph GRAVOIS II (p. 770) & Marie CYR (p. 435).

    I can find no close relationship between this GRAVOIS family and this BABIN family, except in the usual way that "all Acadians are related."

    The original Spanish documents that mention this immigration were cited as: P[apeles] P[rocedentes de] C[uba] 14: 653 and 653a. Does anyone have access to this list? Does anyone have any further information on any of this?" Karen Theriot Reader

    **Here follows my response to Karen's original message**.

    At the end of Volume III (pp. 88-91) of Milton and Norma (Gaudet) Reider's Acadians in France, there is a passenger list for the ship Les Trois Soeurs (The Three Sisters), dated at St-Malo, France on 31 May 1783. Among the passengers on this list are found: Joseph Babin and his children: François (-Laurent), (Pierre-) Moïse, and Marie (-Théotiste), his children. These older sons François and Moïse, undoubtedly must have accompanied their father Joseph back to St-Pierre, to help him build or rebuild their family residence, as well as fish for their subsistence. Marie-Théotiste, the eldest daughter, also accompanied them, undoubtedly to cook and launder their clothes, while they devoted themselves to the task of rebuilding a home. After safely carrying its first boatload of passengers to St-Pierre, the Trois Soeurs returned to St-Malo to retrieve the rest of the families which were to also come to the colony, the following year. Only this journey would have a more perilous destiny.

    The following year (31 May 1784), on its second voyage from St-Malo, the Trois Soeurs ran aground at Mistiquin Point, near Cape Race, Newfoundland, where eventually, the ship completely wrecked. Miraculously, however, all the passengers on the vessel were brought to safety, despite losing their possessions. These arrived in St-Pierre in June of 1784, the truth of this fact can be proven by another recorded event which will follow shortly. Sometime after this event, a complete list of the survivors was drawn up and dated May 1785 (Archives Nationales Col. C 12-8 F° 59ff.) It was this latter, erroneously dated document which has confused researchers for some time now into thinking that the ship actually was wrecked that year (1785), but in reality, it was actually the year prior (1784). Not only does this reconstructed list of survivors include the various family groups which traveled on that ill-fated voyage, but it also gives their ages, other subsequent vital data, and also the sums of money which they were paid in compensation for their loss.

    Among the passengers on this second crossing were the remainder of the Joseph Babin family: Marie (also "Marine") LeBlanc, his wife, aged 44; her children, Victoire, aged 20; Marguerite, aged 14; Mathurin, aged 10; (Jean-) Charles, aged 7; and Victor, aged 5. Accompanying them on the journey were Marie's brother-in-law, Charles Babin, unmarried, aged 40; and her mother-in-law, Marguerite Dupuis, aged 90. In all, there were seven in the group of over 100 passengers. According to a note on the passenger list, we learn that Marguerite Dupuis died at Saint John, Newfoundland, shortly after the shipwreck. The trauma of this event must have been too much for her at such an advanced age. Also, we learn that the family received a compensation of 144 French pounds (livres) for the loss of their possessions, and to cover any medical injuries any of them had received.

    That we know for a fact that the survivors of this wreck arrived at St-Pierre in June of 1784 is borne out by the fact that Jean Clauthier (or Gauthier), a "novice onboard the Trois Soeurs" died at St-Pierre on 30 June 1784, at the age of 16 years. So the survivors must have reached their destination before that date.

    On 28 July 1784, we learn from the St-Pierre registers that Joseph Babin, husband of Marie LeBlanc died at the age of about 37 years. The reunion of their family in that place was short lived. Strangely, and completely by coincidence, a second Joseph Babin (who had also arrived on the first voyage), the husband of Françoise Dugas (whose family were also passengers on the ill-fated second voyage), also died the same day as the first Joseph Babin at St-Pierre. Thus, the only two Babin families on that island found themselves headed by the two widowed mothers.

    In the fall of 1785, Marie-Théotiste Babin married at St-Pierre to Jean-Joseph Marche; their descendants can be found living on the west coast of Newfoundland near Stephenville. Their wedding took place there on 17 October 1784. Two weeks later, her younger sister Victoire also married there on 31 October 1784 to Jacques-Joseph Mermond (or Marmeau), and their descendants can today be found living in the vicinity of Arichat, Nova Scotia. So you were correct in stating that the Victoire in the list of the Brigitte passengers is really a male child named "Victor".

    Another fact: you mentioned that Jean-Charles Babin was one of the passengers on the Brigitte, yet this is not exactly correct. In fact, the summer following the weddings of his sisters, on 10 August 1785, Jean-Charles Babin died at St-Pierre, aged 8 years old. In light of this record, we know that he never made it to Louisiana with the rest of the family, and which leads us to correctly identify the Charles Babin of the Brigitte's passenger list as that of his unmarried uncle, Charles Babin (aged 40, from the passenger list of the Trois Soeurs). Evidently, it was him who accompanied his sister-in-law, Marie and her family to Louisiana.

    As for the Gravois family, the St-Pierre registers list only the birth/baptism of Blanche-Madeleine Gravois on 27 September 1788, so the voyage to Louisiana must have occurred after this date, before the onset of winter, to be exact. As to the Babins' relationship to the Gravois family, I have found none. They could simply have been neighbors while living at St-Pierre.

    As you can see, the rest of the Babin family with Marie LeBlanc onboard the Brigitte is correct as you have it. Théotiste and Victoire did remain in Canada. I have not run across the son you have identified as "Bonaventure" who married in Louisiana, but if he was an adult at the time, I find it difficult to believe that he was not mentioned in the list of the Brigitte's passengers. Usually, the name of a child would be omitted rather than an adult. Bonaventure (if he is in fact the son of Joseph Babin and Marie LeBlanc) may also have preceded the family to Louisiana, and was thus the magnet which drew them to that locale as their final destination.

    As for the Jean-Baptiste Boudrot (Boudreaux), I have no exact idea of his identity at present. At the time these families left St-Pierre et Miquelon, only two Jean Boudrots were living at Miquelon: Jean Boudrot, the husband of Françoise Arsenault, who removed to the Bonaventure area of the Gaspé, and died at Cascapédia; and his son, Jean Boudrot, the husband of Victoire Thériot (Thériault), who removed to the Magdalen Islands, where they settled and where he died at Havre-aux-Maisons. So it was neither of them. Jean and Françoise also had an older son named Jean, husband of Louise Cyr, but he had died much earlier, as his wife Louise Cyr had remarried. I have no found evidence of any childen for them, especially of a son of the same name as his father.

    The only other Boudreaus living at Miquelon besides these Jeans were Claude Boudrot, widower of Madeleine Ozelet (who had only daughters), and his uncle Pierre Boudrot, unmarried, who later married Rose Gautreau, the widow of Paul Gaudet (who being beyond child-bearing years, did not have any children). Finding no other possibilities at present, I don't know what to say in this regard. Perhaps someone got his surname wrong, and it isn't Boudreaux at all! I hope all this makes sense and that it will help clarify further the "story behind the story" of the passenger list of the Brigitte.

    Source: Parish Registers of St-Pierre


    Report On Paper Money Held By The Acadians
    New Orleans, March 8, 1766

    By Roger Rozendal

    In the Spanish Archives in “Archivo General Indios, Audencia de Santo Domingo, Legajos 2595” is found (translated by Carl A. Brasseaux etal in “Quest for the Promised Land” p. 54):

    Register of sums, as from letters of exchange, card money, and drafts, as certificates and other negotiable bills, formerly used as specie by the Acadian refugees in this colony. They have delivered these papers to Mister Maxent, for shipment to his correspondent in France, whom he will instruct to seek reimbursement.

    To wit,
    From one Broussard, leader of the first group (of Acadians, February 1765) to reach this colony, composed of 58 families, the sum of 33,395 livres, 18 sols, divided unequally among said 58 families. The ledger for said amount has been sent to France as supporting evidence, attached to the papers it represents.- 33,395#18s

    From one Bergeron, the sum of 47,076 livres, 19 sols, 6 deniers, belonging to 73 families, some of whom arrived in June 1765, and the remainder of whom will arrive at first opportunity.- 47,076#19s6d

    From one Lachausée, 27,044 livres, 7 sols, 8 deniers, belonging to 37 families, some of whom reached this colony in various ships - in August, September, October and November - and the remainder will arrive shortly.- 27,044#7s8d

    Total - 107,517#5s 2d

    Does not include several certificates whose value has not yet been determined, and were not included in the total of the foregoing ledgers. I hereby acknowledge receipt of the aforementioned sums, in the aforementioned currency, for the aforementioned purposes. At New Orleans (signed) Maxent

    There is an indication of yet one more list of Canadian money holders in a letter from Ulloa to Grimaldi dated July 9, 1766 (translated by Carl A. Brasseaux etal in “Quest for the Promised Land” p. 76):

    My Dear Sir:

    During my visit to the Opelousas and Attakapas [posts], the Acadians settled there showed me a small coffer which contained currency of the province of Canada, the total of which is owed them by His Most Christian Majesty and which does not constitute part of the Louisiana debt nor that of the Acadians of which Your Excellency was notified in the month of March. They total 6,890 livres, 17 sols, which constitute a little more than 13,000 pesos. To have a statement on their value, I arranged for the superior of the Capuchins to take it himself to Mister Maxent, the merchant who has taken care of the money of other Acadians...

    Unfortunately, only one of these lists has been found, that of the Joseph Broussard group. In the future I plan to post information from this list. However, certain inferences can be drawn.

    Including the 4 families who arrived in 1764, this would indicate 172 plus the Opelousas group (1766 census 17 families and 35 individuals) Acadian families had arrived in Louisiana prior to the April 1766 Spanish census. From other correspondence and information, the following can be deduced about the groups:

    First arrivals, before 26 February 1764: 4 families of 20 individuals This group seems to have been exiled to Gerorgia, were in South Carolina 23 August 1763, went to New York and sailed from there to Louisiana. Settled in Cabannoce on the Mississippi River just above the German Coast (Verret’s Company).

    Joseph Broussard Group, before 19 February 1765: 58 families 231 individuals (an additional 7 or 8 had died in New Orleans) The members of this group were imprisoned in Halifax or Fort Edward with a few at Fort Beausejour. They sailed from Halifax in November 1764, changed ships in Santo Domingo, and sailed to Louisiana. They settled in Attakapas. After this group, the Spanish allowed no other Acadians to go there until after the 1766 census.

    Group before 4 May 1765: (25 families) 80 individuals Most in this group had been imprisoned at Halifax or Fort Edward. They were settled in Cabannoce in Judice’s Company.

    Group before 13 May 1765: 48 families (168 individuals at 3.5/family) Some in this group had been in South Carolina 23 August 1763. Most had been imprisoned in Halifax or Ft. Edward. They settled in Cabannoce mainly in Verret’s Company.

    Group after 30 September 1765: 37 families (130 individuals at 3.5/family)
    This group is really a mixed bag and arrived in a number of ships. It includes families from New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania who had gone to settle in Santo Domingo in September 1764 (600 individuals). A lot of them were orphans, widows, and widowers, the few survivors of that disasterous climate. This group was settled in both Judice’s and Verret’s Companies often with relatives who had arrived earlier.

    Opelousas Group (1766 census 17 families, 35 individuals) This group had all been imprisoned at Halifax or Ft. Edward. I do not think any of them came with Joseph Broussard, but were a later group. The first record of an Opelousas resident is the marriage of Anastasie Guenard (Timothy & Marie Thibodeau) on 9 February 1766 to Amable Bertrand, an Alabaman (LSAR: Opel: 1766-3) Hebert SWLAR pp. 367-368.

    From the above, prior to the 1766 Spanish census of Louisiana it would seem about 189 Acadian families made up of approximately 674 individuals arrived in Louisiana. In a future post, I will compare these numbers with the results of the 1766 census.

    For an excellent summary of Acadian arrivals in Louisiana, see Elton Oubre's book "Vacherie" (revised edition) pp. 68-77.


    Pierre Chartier French Shawnee Metis in Pennsylvania

    By Francoise Duhamel Wilcox

    It is probably not surprising to most of us that the Coureur de Bois found their way to Pennsylvania, The role that they played in the history of this state is not well known. One man and his son, engaged in this fur trade, made an important contribution to the History of Pennsylvania, and the United States.

    Martin Chartier, a Frenchman - was born 1655 in Poitiers, France. He died April, 1718. In Pennsylvania He had arrived in New France in 1667 with his father Rene Chartier, his older brother Pierre, and a sister.

    Martin Chartier was doubtless the first white man to travel the Old Allegheny Indian trail , becoming one of the first whites to penetrate to the area of Tennessee and Alabama via the Natchez Trace, many years before Daniel Boone. He most likely joined the Shawnees in Tennessee prior to 1675 below the mouth of the Ohio on the Mississippi, having been detached from LaSalle's southern expedition. In some literature he is said to have deserted La Salle probably in Tennessee, He was an adopted son of the Shawnees, married into the tribe and spent his life with them, sharing their wanderings and fortunes.

    About 1690 Martin had found his way to the Susquehanna with two wives and a daughter. There he made the acquaintance of other French fur traders, Jacques LeTorte, the Huguenot who had fled Catholic France for freedom in Penn’s woods. Pierre Bizaillon and his brother Michel were career traders and explorers who had also found their way to Western Pa and the Susquehanna. All were close with the Native population, LeTorte knew the Delaware’s Conoys and Shawnees, Pierre Bizaillon had been “ admitted into the Councell(sic) of the Indians” and Chartier, called “ Father” by Shawnees, with “ MC” tattooed on his chest, had so completely adopted native ways that some thought him “ a Feather of the same Bird with the Indians” these men also posed a problem for the Pennsylvania officials seeking go-betweens. It wasn’t so much a problem of Indian ness, it was that they were, shall we say, too French. They had all arrived in Pennsylvania when France and England were at each other’s throats. French , even Protestant French were suspect. The government caught between a rock and a hard place, did employ them as intermediaries, but the Government never really trusted them, calling them “ Allien, spie, …very dangerous person who Kept privat(sic) correspondence (sic) with the Canida (sic) Indians and the French” French traders were followed, interrogated fined and sometimes even jailed.

    Martin Chartier was larger than life, but that didn’t keep him from getting into situations that would have been a script for an Abbot and Costello movie. About 1707 A certain Nicole Godin another trader, had run afoul of the Pennsylvania government, as an “inciter of the people against the English and to Joyn with our publick enemy the French to our Destruction (sic)” .

    The Shawnees made inquiries as to Godin’s where abouts, and was told, “ Paxtang”. On the evening of July 2 with Martin in tow, the then Governor Evans and his men were camped a few miles from that Indian town. Evans took the Chief of the town aside and told him the plan. The Chief’s response was less than hearty. While he willingly agreed to it, he also advised the Governor to be very cautious in the of taking Godin. Since there were only young men at home, who might feel like resisting this plan, if it were done without telling them about it first . This meant a formal council. Evans ignored the advice. At dawn he and his posse set off for the town and hid behind some bushes. Knowing of the traders’ notorious thirst for liquor, Evans ordered Chartier to lure Godin out with the news that two kegs of rum were “stashed around the corner. “Come with me and have a bit of a taste,” Chartier was to say. The script worked out, sort of: Out walked Chartier with two Pennsylvania traders eager to tap the imaginary kegs: Godin had declined. In the bushes, further deliberations took place. Back went Chartier with orders to bring down some of the Indians, and Godin with him. Out again came Chartier, this time with two natives, but still no Godin. Again, more explanations to the bewildered Indians of what was going on. Again, mixed reviews. The two said that they were “contented” with the plot, but they not so subtly asked the men, “how many we were and how armed” upon hearing that they were outnumbered the native villagers were decidedly unhappy. The day was getting old, so was crouching in the bushes. One more consultation and they decided to try once more. In went Chartier, and this time he came out with the prize in hand , but the object was not yet secured Chartier playing his assigned role to the end invited Godin to have a drink from the non existent keg then grabbed Godin only to have him slip free and make a run for it. Evans and his men leapt from the bushes in hot pursuit. They finally caught the recalcitrant trader and hustled him off. Of course had they taken the advice of the Indians, this charade would not have had to happen.

    In Allegheny County we find Chartiers Township, Chartier’s Creek and Valley - Chartiers Valley was named after Pierre Chartier, Martin Chartier’s son. Pierre’s mother, Seaworthy, was Shawnee. Pierre was born in 1690 and married a Shawnee woman. His children were Francois, Pale Stalker, and Anna. He died sometime in 1759.

    Pierre Chartier as a fur trader was very active among the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Indians and Shawnee whose lands were slowly and inexorably being taken up legally and illegally pushing them further west by the encroaching white population. These two tribes were friendly and pretty much in the same boat. They had been subdued by the Iroquois and made subservient members of the Iroquois Nation. They had made marriage alliances between themselves and considered themselves politically allied. While their relations were almost always warm, and familial, there were occasions where disagreements caused minor rifts. At one time the Shawnees moved to another camp rather than escalate the irritations between the two tribes.

    After his father’s death in 1718, Pierre carried on the fur trade between Philadelphia and the Susquehanna. What made this fur trader different than some of his counterparts/competitors was not his access to European goods, but his good sense to share them with the Shawnee leaders, that way acquiring great influence. What really made the difference were the circumstances of his birth. His mother was Shawnee, and by Indian custom, this made him “one of them”. Lineages for most Native American tribes are by Matrilineal descent. In other words, “ Mamma’s baby, Daddy’s maybe”. He was considered an Indian by his tribe, not a “half breed” as the English called him or a Métis as the French referred to him. He placed this above all other political affiliations.

    Pierre also did interpreting at council meetings during the 1730’s helping to maintain the commerce peace and communication between Philadelphia and the Shawnee western settlements. The English thought of him as firmly in Pennsylvania’s camp, but the French were doing everything they could to draw the Shawnee into their sphere of influence. Chartier and his band did break it off with the English, after leading a raid on Pennsylvania traders in the Ohio country. His reasons for this are hard to fathom, but they probably included memories of English encroachment on Indian lands, dastardly deeds by conniving James Logan, Penn’s secretary, that led to Chartier losing his father’s farm. What ever the reasons. The Iroquois and British were outraged calling him a coward and a “turncoat” blaming his Shawnee blood as the cause. It seems odd to me that they didn’t consider that he was ,after all, the son of a French man. But here is where it gets complicated. Chartier and his Shawnees changed sides more than once. Chartier eventually became disenchanted with the French when their supplies ran short. In 1744 he had decided to take the side of the French, who were trying very hard to secure the Indian trade; and on the 18th April that year he, with a large body of Shawnee, in a surprise attack took prisoners along with two other traders on the Allegheny robbing them of their entire stock of goods, amounting to sixteen hundred pounds. The names of these two (French) traders were “James Dinnew” (Deneau ) and Peter Tostee. These traders were French that had sided with the English. For this and numerous other “villainies” Chartier was severely reprimanded and given a warning by Pennsylvania’s Governor Thomas. This must have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. It became the excuse for joining the French. On the 25 of April, 1745, the Governor announced the fact to the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania. During the same year Chartier persuaded the Shawnee at the Old Town to abandon their settlement and move to the Scioto. (Ohio) He was rewarded by a commission in the French service., Another source from the Wisconsin Historical Society Collections states that “The Indians from English-controlled territory began their migration westward about 1730. Peter Chartier, the half-breed turncoat, who began negotiations with the French at Detroit before 1740, led a band of Shawnee from the Allegheny to French-dominated Ohio ( XVII, 331). This alliance lasted but a few years. Lack of French trade goods and antipathy for other Indians caused the Shawnee to desert the French at Detroit, some migrating to Scioto (Lower Shawnee Town) and the others with Chartier to the south among the Alabama Indians We don’t hear much about Pierre after this. We know that the famous Shawnee. Tecumseh, was a member the band Pierre led. He died in 1759.

    For Pierre Chartier Shawnee, the problem was simple, his people came first. Expediency was part of survival. This versatility of being at home with the French, English and Shawnees alike also made him suspect to all of them. This has always been the dilemma faced by the Métis. Neither fish nor fowl so to speak.

    The location of Pierre’s Chartier’s trading post was probably near the mouth of the Chartiers Creek in Allegheny County. While he departed with the Shawnees, on one of his treks west probably to Detroit, or perhaps South to Tennessee or Alabama, he frequently returned and he did obtain a deed to this property in 1739.

    Chartier’s Creek was considered very important early on and an Act of Congress was passed before the War of 1812 declaring it navigable and a public highway forever. Today however it isn’t quite so imposing. Chartier’s Valley comprises all the territory drained by Chartier’s Creek which would extend from the Ohio River at McKees Rocks back into Washington County where it has its source, All this territory became a bone of contention between the French and the English in the French and Indian War This place was a strategic point. The Ohio eventually empties into the Mississippi, and the Allegheny become part of the water shed that empties into the Chesapeake Bay. And it was not that far from the Fort Duquesne/Fort Pitt This is the point at which the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers join to form the Ohio River (La Belle Rivière to the French) has been known as the Forks of the Ohio, an area recognized for its strategic importance by early British and French agents. Today it is known as Pittsburg.


    Preparing for CMA 2004
    An Experience All of Its Own

    By Lucie LeBlanc Consentino

    For weeks after returning home from CMA 2004, I thought back very often to all that happened during that wonderful time when Acadian descendants from all over the world returned Home to a land once called Acadie. Though months have passed since then, my thoughts still oft return to all that was in that special time and in that special place. What a special time in our Acadian history. Our experiences should never be forgotten for the uniqueness they held. To have been a part of a World Congress of Acadians - and all that a World Congress holds... the wonderful Cousins we met... to have walked where our Ancestors lived, breathed and had their beings - these are the reasons that I decided write about my experiences preparing for CMA 2004 - specifically, my preparation for the Closing Mass held on August 15, 2004 at Grand-Pré. This was a very moving culmination of a special time when we were suspended for a short while in our own Acadian history.

    A few weeks before my departure to CMA, the Protocol Officer emailed me regarding the closing Mass to be held on August 15th, the feast day of Our Lady of the Assumption - [an Acadian National Holiday in the Maritimes so designated by the Canadian Government]. She asked if I would participate in the Mass as a delegate representing New England. Thrilled to be asked, I immediately agreed.

    All delegates were asked to bring water from their regions. As I sat back in my chair, I thought, "There is no way I can take along water from the tap"! I instantly felt compelled to go to the shore to obtain some ocean water. There was no doubt in my mind that I needed and wanted to do this.

    A few days later, I went to the Hampton Beach area of New Hampshire and it became a pilgrimage. It occurred to me how the Atlantic Ocean had always connected Acadians to our homeland: Our first Acadian Ancestors left France and sailed across the Atlantic to "Acadie.” They then conducted commerce with the British in Boston by sailing on the Atlantic. They were set back to sea when they were deported from their beloved land to the Bay Colonies in exile. Those from Virginia were not accepted, and therefore once again deported - this time across the Atlantic, to prisons in England.

    I also thought about the hundreds of Acadians deported from Ile St-Jean in 1758 on the Duke William, the Ruby and the Violet and how those ships went down at sea losing all of that precious human cargo. Entire families were lost and thus never heard from again.

    In this year of CMA 2004, I thought of how these waters of the Atlantic still connect Acadians. They connect New England Acadians to our Cajun Cousins of Louisiana through the Gulf of Mexico; to all of our cousins in the Maritimes; to our cousins in France; and so on.

    If this moment of "pilgrimage" had been my whole experience, it would have been well worthwhile! I emailed the Protocol Officer and told her so.

    Throughout CMA, I freely shared the story of my pilgrimage with all the "cousins" I met. They too were moved. When I shared this with the person responsible for the water bearers before the Mass she was both moved and excited, promising she would not forget my experience. The Protocol Officer said my message about this "pilgrimage" was the sort that made her job worthwhile.

    August 15th was a sunny and warm day. In fact, it was the warmest day since we had arrived. Showers and rain had been a great possibility as the remnants of hurricane Frances moved through the area, but Our Lady would not be outdone. She took care of everything. There had been a shower during the night, and that was it. We arose to a bright sunshiny morning.

    The Water Bearers were the first to participate in the Mass. A large urn had been placed to the right of the altar where each water bearer would empty a container containing water from his or her region. The Water Bearers were represented by Keptin Frank Nevin, District Chief of the Mi'kmaq Nation; Bernard Oswald, France; Michel Cyr, Acadie; The Honorable Benoit Pelletier, Québec; Representative Clara Baudoin, Louisiana; and myself, as an Acadian historian and researcher.

    When I went to pour the water from my region into the large urn, I first raised it in honor of all of our Ancestors - greeted by the large applause of the roughly 10,000 people assembled for this Mass.

    When I looked up and saw the throng and thought of our Ancestors, I was overwhelmed. As I lead the group of Water Bearers back to our seats, I could not help but think how proud my Acadian Father must be that his daughter worked so diligently so that all New England Acadians would be recognized at this most august moment. And here she was remembering him and sharing this moment with him.

    My father - who never even knew his Acadian roots - had come home!

    This is an update of a similar article published by:

    The American-Canadian Genealogist The American-Canadian Genealogical Society

    Michigan's Habitant Heritage French Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan

    Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines Norm Leveillée's E-zine.



    Treasured Moment at Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia

    By Brenda C. Trahan
    Acadian Memorial Curator - Director

    Having returned from the Congrés of the Acadians with many stories, I would like to share a treasured moment I will remember forever!

    I was given the opportunity to plan and assist with the "Cajuns at Grand-Pré" day at the Grand-Pré National Historic Site in Nova Scotia. To be on the land of my Acadian ancestors for the twinning reconnection between St. Martinville Evangeline Oak Park and Grand-Pré National Historical Site was very emotional. This ceremony was a great way to showcase the importance of our relationship and open the day for personal encounters between Acadians and Cajuns.

    From Louisiana we brought Cajun food by Chef Roy, Cajun music by "The New Pine Grove Boys", Cajun & Creole dancing styles, lectures from Warren Perrin on the Queen's apology and Christy Maraist on the pride of Acadians, conversations and Cajuns reuniting with Acadians! These events brought excitement in the air for over 3,000 people in attendance.

    At the close of the day, I facilitated an event called "If the Willows Could Speak"! The perfect place to reflect was behind the St. Charles Church replica near the 250 year old willows planted by the Acadian ancestors years before the Deportation. Cajun fiddlers played soulful music and participants stood on ground that belonged to their ancestors, knowing that they were breathing the same air, looking at the same sky, and standing on the very soil they tilled, opened opportunities for expression of feelings and emotions about the congrés reunion. As tears fell, Cajuns/Acadians told of their experiences. The sharing ended as the fiddles played joyfully for all to dance a jig on such a sacred site. It was undeniably a spiritual moment in time!

    Media from Canada, USA, and France were exceptionally impressed with this reunion and gathering. A New York Times reporter, Clifford Krauss promised a wonderful article to tribute our heritage. He titled it, "Evangeline People Gather and Weep for Ancestors Fate". Here are a few of his words to describe the Acadian/Cajun gathering, they came in motor homes, buses and planes from as far away as Baton Rouge and Brussels, tens of thousands of them, to sing and dance and enjoy the same summer Nova Scotia breezes as their ancestors, who settled the French colony of Acadie in the early 17th century and were removed in 1755.

    The land here was taken from my ancestors and now I have to pay for parking on land that could have been mine, Donald Landry, 51, from Dieppe, New Brunswick, told a group gathered under some willow trees while two fiddlers took a break from playing old Cajun songs about loneliness and unrequited love on the bayou. We shouldn't forget that that's history that we didn't know about for a long time, he added with a trembling smile.

    Acadians from around the world came to visit the cradle of Acadie during Congrès Mondial Acadien and it became the scene of reflection and unexpected tears.

    In 2009,the Congrès should be just as impressive! The World Wide Congress of the Acadians will be held in the Acadian Peninsula of Caraquet, New Brunswick! Make a long-term goal to be there!



    Celebrating the Heritage of New England Acadians at Grand-Pré

    By Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
    This was a presentation given at Grand-Pré
    during CMA 2004

    WHO AM I

    I am the daughter George Charles LeBlanc [à Damien à Sylvain à Sylvain à Firmin à Jos-André à Claude-André à André à Daniel] born in New Bedford, MA 1896 and Rosanna Lévesque. My grandfather Damien LeBlanc married my grandmother Odille Doiron in 1867 in Shédiac, New Brunswick six months after his first wife passed away shortly after giving birth to their ninth child. My father and mother were married in 1919 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. My grandparents on both sides were the first of our line to migrate to Massachusetts. My mother’s parents were Étienne Lévesque and Arthémise Dumais.

    ACADIAN ASSIMILATION

    Though thousands of Acadians were deported to the British Colonies in 1755 this does not mean that they were the ones who living in 19th century New England. Our Acadian Ancestors who settled in the New England States migrated from the Maritimes from the mid to the late 1800s as they looked toward to a better life for themselves and for their families. Work in the mills was abundant and like their French-Canadian counterparts of Quebec they headed in great numbers to New England.

    Everyone though did not opt to work in those mills. Some worked at trades familiar to them which where those of fishermen, carpenters and even teamsters as was my grandfather Damien. Meanwhile others were a bit more entrepreneurial.

    In some ways it was quite unfortunate that because they were of French origin our ancestors, whether Acadian or French-Canadian, were founding or settling in the same areas of cities, towns and villages. Unfortunate because the Acadians in particular were consciously or unconsciously being assimilated – given the tragic events of the Deportation and all that it entailed, Acadians by far and large had still not wanted to be too well known in any situation where the English were dominant. Knowing that, we have to consider that Massachusetts and New England in general was still quite “Yankee”. Consequently, Acadians began to change their names from Aucoin to Wedge, LeBlanc to White, Doiron to Gould – meanwhile the French-Canadians were changing their names from Boisvert to Greenwood, Levesque to Bishop and so on.

    What is important to know is that our Acadian Ancestors migrated with the unconscious baggage that the Deportation and years of exile and imprisonment had thrust upon them. Until a new awareness of who they were as a people would arise within them, the ideal for the moment was to always have a low profile and to be little known by others be they British, Yankee or any other ethinic group.

    What happened in the process of assimilation is that after a while we did not know that we were Acadian. I grew up believing I was French-Canadian. My father’s parents died when he was young, leaving his older brothers and sisters to raise him. So I had no Acadian grandparents to learn about my Acadian identity. It was not until many years later that I would come to a realization concerning my whole identity.

    For the Acadian population in general, it was not until 1952 when Father Clarence d’Entremont left W. Pubnico, Nova Scotia to practice his ministry in Fairhaven, Massachusetts that Acadians began to recognize who they were as Acadians.

    While attending Franco-American community meetings, he began to realize that what he was experiencing were extensions of French-Canadian customs and that the Acadians were quickly losing their identity and their own customs into this sort of melting pot.

    It was not long before Father Clarence realized that the Acadian Survival in New England was at stake! Assimilation was not our only problem. We were forgotten by the Acadian leaders and communities of the Maritimes - That wonderful place that became the soul of Acadian descendants.

    NEW ENGLAND ACADIANS FORGOTTEN

    Why were New England Acadians forgotten? For several reasons:

  • Well known and well respected Acadian authors forgot us
  • Acadian researchers forgot us
  • Acadian Historians forgot us
  • Our own cousins forgot us
  • AWAKENING OF THE ACADIANS

    What was happening in New England during this migration period:

  • In spite of the "apparent" climate in New England jobs were offered to English-only and non-Catholics in what was overall a Yankee state.

  • Acadia had not died in the hearts of its children

  • Ties to faith, to family and to homeland were maintained by some who could afford to travel back and forth to the Maritimes particularly those who did seasonal work. Those who were not doing so well financially were unable to return from whence they had come. I believe that many such Acadians lost touch with their roots and never talked about them much – among those were my grandparents to their own children except that it seems my grandmother did talk about the Maritimes to the older children.
  • ACADIAN MIGRATION TO MASSACHUSETTS

  • 1850: first contingents of Acadians arrive in fishing ports and ply their trade

  • 1860s: about 20 Acadian marriages

  • 1871: Acadian immigration expands

    WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?

  • Arichat, Cape Breton
  • Ile Madame, Cape Breton
  • Southern Nova Scotia
  • New Brunswick
  • Prince Edward Island
  • Quebec

    WHERE DID THEY GO?

  • Connecticut
  • Maine
  • Massachusetts
  • New Hampshire
  • Rhode Island
  • Vermont

  • NO NEW ENGLAND ACADIANS INVITED TO THE FIRST ACADIAN CONVENTIONS

  • 1881: first Acadian Convention in held in Memramcook
  • 1884: 2nd Acadian Convention in Prince Edward Island
  • No New England Acadians had been invited to either of these two first conventions.

    HOW ACADIANS STRUGGLED

    Meanwhile, the Acadians of New England struggled to find work; to keep their families together; to keep their faith alive; to remember who they were as a people. They struggled to remain connected as an existing entity of the Acadian family and community to which they belonged.

    FINALLY INVITED BUT STILL FORGOTTEN

    In 1890 a convention was held at Church Point, Nova Scotia. Some Acadian delegates from Haverhill, Massachusetts attended but their names were never recorded as having been part of that convention. So once again Acadians in New England were all but forgotten then under the urgings of Father Clarence, La Société Mutuelle l’Assomption was organized. Establishing this society was a first attempt to organize the Acadians of New England on a permanent basis. It worked for twelve years until the head office was moved to Moncton, New Brunswick.

    CMA 2004 - REMEMBERED AT LAST

    The CMA 2004 Committee was very mindful of our existence and of our wanting to be recognized while preparations were underway from 2000-2004. There was a great collaborative effort between us in making New England Acadians an integral part of CMA 2004.

  • CMA Web site – when the CMA Web site was first launched, once again there was no mention of New England. I dashed off an email to the CMA Committee highlighting this omission. Immediately, the committee rectified this and New England was included in this and in all future flyers and posters advertising CMA 2004.

  • CMA Theme Song – Listening to the CMA theme song was a very moving experience for me as I heard “les ports de la Nouvelle Angleterre” – the “ports of New England” – we were finally being recognized and being given our rightful place in a World Congress.

  • Invitations to participate – the committee remained mindful of New England and encouraged reporters to contact me for interviews. I was also invited to make the presentation in this article at Grand-Pré Historic site on August 13, 2004.
  • THE ACADIAN EMERGES

    And so… some Acadians knew who they were because they had migrated with extended families. This allowed them to continue with their Acadian customs at home and in local parish and social communities they formed.

    However for other descendants of these migrants, it would be years before they would know their heritage as Acadians. It is thanks to the growth of genealogical research that many have come to know their roots in the past 10 to 15 years.

    HOW THEN WILL THEY KNOW?

    We need to tell our stories to others - To groups, in interviews, on the Internet – wherever we can. We must encourage Acadian historians to take note and to remember us as children of l’Acadie. We too need to become historians for our own families. We need to encourage others to research their family histories. In researching or roots, we become familiar with all Acadian surnames - we can then tell others with similar names that we are "cousins" from l'Acadie.

    HAVE WE COME FULL CIRCLE?

    And so today, *we have come full circle*. I was invited to this historic place of Grand-Pré to celebrate and to validate our New England heritage. It is thus with great fervor, gratitude and pride that I represent *all* New England Acadians no matter what state they are from.

    In this time and place that is Grand Pré, I also represented all American-Acadian women remembering too that our grandmothers were the heart and backbone of the Acadian family.

    It was with a great passion that I returned to my roots at Grand-Pré where my 6th great grandparents André LeBlanc and Marie Dugas; Jacques LeBlanc and Catherine Hébert – sons of our first grandparents Daniel LeBlanc and Françoise Gaudet - settled as early colonists in this hallowed place.

    It was here in the parish of St-Charles des Mines that they were married, raised their families and were buried in the parish cemetery toward the mid 1700s.

    Yes… we New Englanders have come to celebrate our Acadian heritage… WE HAVE COME HOME! Vive l’Acadie – May Acadia live forever in our hearts!




    EDITOR'S CORNER



    Firsts in Acadia


    1. Mathieu Martin was the first born among the French in Acadia(1636.)

    2. Marc Lescarbot put on a theatrical presentation Le Théatre de Neptune en Nouvelle France in which he played the part of Neptune.

    3. First crops planted were with seeds brought from France by Poutrincourt in 1606.

    4. Louis Hébert was the first farmer in Acadia, then the first in Quebec.

    5. Jean de Poutrincourt was responsible for the first water powered mill in North America.

    6. Baron de Lery brought the first cattle to Acadia in 1518. Leaving the cattle at Canso and Sable Island, he left for France expecting to return but did not.

    7. There were horses at Port Royal in 1613 and in Boston in 1629.

    8. Pontgravé and his craftsmen built the first vessel in the spring of 1606.

    9. Apple trees from Normandie were introduced about 1605.

    10. The first men's social club L'Ordre du Bon Temps organized by Marc Lescarbot began in the winter of 1606-1607.

    Sources: A Brief Acadian History by Alphonse Deveau & The History of Acadia by James Hannay


    Pennsylvania Gazette September 18, 1755
    The Deportation

    September 18, 1755
    The Pennsylvania Gazette
    BOSTON, September 8

    Last Week several Vessels arrived here from Halifax, and by Letters from Gentlemen of the best Intelligence there, we are told, that in three Weeks Time all the French in Nova Scotia would be removed out of the Province, but to what Place not known. That Col. Monckton had Orders to destroy every French Vessel, Boat or Canoe he could find in any Harbour, Bay, Creek or River in the Province, to prevent the Inhabitants from making their Escape. That our Fleet had taken 7 or 8 French Ships and Snows, two of which from Martinico, the rest from France, laden with Wine, Brandy, Bale Goods, Provisions, &c. most of them of great Value. That Admiral Boscawen had given Orders to all his Captains to take or destroy every French Vessel that came in their Way, and bring those taken into the Harbour at Halifax. That nine Transports were gone to Minas, to take as many of the Neutrals as they could carry, and that three Priests or Jesuits had been taken and sent to Halifax, and were put on board the AdmiralShip for Security, in order to be sent to England.


    Recently Published Books

    A Great and Noble Scheme The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians From Their American Homeland by John Mack Faragher

    John was in touch with me while writing his book. He sent me the New York Times review of the book and it had good reviews all the way around. John is a Professor of American History at Yale University.

    I will have more to say on this after I have read the book from cover to cover. John also wants my - our feedback - from anyone who reads this latest publication by him.

    All of John Mack Faragher's books may be purchased on the Alibris website.

    Sods, Soil, and Spades The Acadians at Grand Pré and their Dykeland Legacy by J. Sherman Bleakney

    J. Sherman Bleakney is a retired professor of biology, Acadia University, living in Wolfville (where Grand Pré is closely situated). His book has had good reviews and is easy reading.

    Both books can be purchased at AMAZON.COM at a very reasonable prices - you can even get free shipping.


    *****Five Star Sites*****

    Acadian Memorial - Louisiana
    Acadian customs PEI
    Belle Ile en Mer
    Centre d'études acadiennes, Moncton
    Colonial Voices
    Etat Civil De Belle-Ile-en-Mer
    Father Farmer's Marriage registers for St Joseph's church Philadelphia
    Kamouraska Genealogy
    La Fédération québécoise des sociétés de généalogie
    Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines - Ezine By Norm Leveillée
    Le College des Quatre-Nations
    Maliseet Church Records
    National Archives of Canada
    Native Peoples of Canada - 1500s
    Old Canada Road (Maine's French Communities)
    Daniel Paul, Mi'kmaq Author
    Quebec Metis Connections
    Racines & Rameaux Français d'Acadie
    Racines Rochelaises
    Sentinelles Petitcodiac Riverkeeper
    Société Promotion Grand-Pré
    The Saint John River - Great Canadian Rivers
    The Upper St. John River Valley




    Copyright"




  • Please navigate this site using the sidebar
    If you do not see a sidebar to the left CLICK HERE


    Music Sequenced by Heatherli(Susan) Giffen